


This Hour Has Sixty Issues

by Mama_Anarchia



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: Female Character of Color, Original Character(s), POV Outsider, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-10
Updated: 2015-05-10
Packaged: 2018-03-29 23:48:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3915259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mama_Anarchia/pseuds/Mama_Anarchia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sage Chu is a journalism student, focusing her studies on how superheroes are represented in the media.  She dreams of getting close to them, having heartfelt, tearful interviews, and to be the first in the know.  WIP, Sage will react to events in the Marvel universe as they unfold in the comics.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Hour Has Sixty Issues

Sage glanced at the time. Shit. Her ten minute break had turned into a half hour. She closed her laptop and pushed it across the desk. Tumblr was becoming too much of a time suck. It had value, she could gather opinions and perspectives she had not considered which often made for great discussion points in class. But it was also a terrible distraction from studying.

She pulled her neglected textbook and opened it up, her notebook tucked inside the chapter she was studying. It was for her class Psychology 2058: Super Psychology, and the midterm exam was not for another two weeks. But the “Trauma and the Superhero” chapter contained some great information that would be very useful for her Gender Studies 3041: Superheroes and Identity term paper. 

According to this chapter, a 2013 study found that 40% of male superheroes interviewed had a girlfriend that was killed; only 15% of female superheroes had a dead boyfriend in their past. The study was the only of its kind, however, and had a few problems. The sample size was small, dependent on superheroes who were open with the public, and was woefully heteronormative. Still, it was a good start, and hopefully the beginning of many studies of its kind. Most other studies centered around loss and superheroes were focused on the fact that many (maybe most) superheroes had at least one dead parent, and did not closely examine the loss of friends and romantic relationships. 

She wrote out the details of the study, and noted that “grey” supers were left out of the study, many of whom were women. Supers like Elektra, Red She-Hulk, or recently Loki, for example, have toed the line between hero and villain, and did not fit neatly into either category, which has often posed a problem for scholars. 

Her phone rang, interrupting her train of thought. Her phone was on her bed, under the Enquirer magazine she had thrown in rage. The front cover was a paparazzi shot of Squirrel Girl, with the headline “LOOK WHO GOT FAT! AND 25 OTHER SUPERHEROINES WHO STRUGGLED WITH WEIGHT”. Sage hated shit like that, but the Gender Studies class had gotten her thinking about how super women were treated by the media. Begrudgingly, she bought a few trashy tabloids to expose herself to the more problematic perspectives.

She fished her phone out from underneath. A text message from Emily. “The new Thor will be doing an AMA on Reddit next week!!!! EEEE!” Sage immediately ran back to her text and opened her laptop. After a quick Google search, she confirmed it was true. “Next Thursday Is Thor’s Day On Reddit”, the headline ran. It started at 2pm, which was halfway through Sage’s Gender Studies class but she could probably convince the professor to let her monitor the AMA during class, since it was relevant. She wanted to see every comment before anything got deleted or downvoted into oblivion. There would be trolls, but being able to see the frequency of misogynistic or anti-super attacks might a good point for her blog post summary. 

And, of course, she was excited as a fan. Above her desk, she had a cork board full of her favourite superhero magazine covers. Someone at TIME managed to get a great headshot of the new Thor, accompanied by the caption, “WHO IS SHE?” Sage had waited in the cold for the newsstand to open early the morning it was released. She bought two copies, one she had in plastic and board because who knows it might be worth thirty, even forty dollars someday, and one that she read front to back and preserved the cover on her cork board. The cover became inspiration for a dream: to interview Thor, to ask her hard questions and uncover the mystery, even identity, of the woman under the helmet.. She was burning with questions, and started to consider which were AMA worthy and which she should save for that dream exclusive interview. 

Because asking a question anonymously on Reddit was one thing, but she had to save some good ones to make “Thor Opens Up In Exclusive Interview With Sage Chu” a reality.


End file.
